PBA Bowling 2 brings the game, the lanes, Pete and his cronies to handheld devices. Concrete Software is no slouch when it comes to high quality graphics, and, at the very least, I think Concrete lives up to its reputation with this title.

First… the look and feel. Wow. I almost literally could smell the oil on the lanes. I thought a lot of detail was put into the graphics, and it was reflected in the rich imagery. The animations were also beautifully done. Anyone who has bowled knows the unique situation of not completely knocking down a pin that somehow wobbles out of place, but yet stays upright. I found this replicated on PBA Bowling 2. The developer was also able to toss in locations from the Lumber Liquidators and Tour to up the realism quotient.

Now, if there is one thing that I have to keep coming back to, it will be the detail. From the reflection of the pins, through to the artistic perspective of the gutters, to the movement of the pinsetter… everything looked and “felt” pretty good to me. Bowling itself was initiated by the flick of a finger, and controlling the handheld device did the rest.

The gameplay was split (see what I did there?) into three levels of play. There were also there missed of play: single game, spare challenge, and my favorite… championship. In championship mode, I got to go against the best in the game in single elimination games. It is quite easy to get caught up in the play, and by adding in unlockable achievements and rewards, the developer made me more willing to spend time trying to beat the simulated pros. I loved the special bowling balls that I could make for single game mode too.

The social element was a nice feature, with interactive leaderboards and a personal high score list for local play, which served as motivation.

I wish a game this fun had some sort of multiplayer functionality built-in. On a practical level, it may be hard to go ten-pin bowling with family remotely, but I still think multiplayer would have been a great addition.

I don’t know that I’d beat Pete Weber in real life, and so far, he has beaten me every time in virtual-land. But I’m sure I’ll get him eventually… in a hail of turkeys.